Comparing Malayalam Letters with Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada

#malayalam #script comparison #language learning #devanagari #tamil #telugu #kannada
July 25, 2025

🔡 Malayalam Letters Compared Across Scripts

We’ve published a new video that visually compares Malayalam letters with similar-sounding letters in Hindi (Devanagari), Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada.

What the Video Shows

The video animates each Malayalam letter side-by-side with its closest phonetic counterpart in the other four major South and North Indian scripts:

  • Devanagari (used for Hindi)
  • Tamil
  • Telugu
  • Kannada

The audio track uses only Malayalam pronunciation, allowing you to focus on how the sound maps visually across different scripts.

A Note About Phonetic Matches

Not all Malayalam letters have perfect one-to-one sound matches in other scripts. Letters like ങ (nga), ഞ (nja), ഴ (zha), and ള (ḷa) are examples where no exact equivalent exists in the other languages shown. These differences are part of what makes each script and language unique.

This video isn’t meant to be a technical or linguistic guide — instead, it’s a visual reflection on how Indian scripts relate to each other, in form and sound.

Why It’s Interesting for Learners

If you’re learning Malayalam — or already familiar with other Indian scripts — this can be a fun way to:

  • Recognize visual patterns across writing systems
  • Appreciate the shared roots and differences between scripts
  • Build cross-script awareness useful in multilingual contexts

Summary

This video gives a quick look at how Malayalam letters compare to letters in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada — both visually and phonetically.

It’s meant as a light, visual exploration for language learners, educators, or anyone curious about how Indian scripts evolved and connect to one another.


Let us know what you notice — and if you’d like to see deeper comparisons or other script-related videos in the future.

Team Aashaan